Awakening
by DeutchRemy
Summary: Meddle with a Ouija board and suffer the consequences...Set after S2 Christmas Special. Contains SPOILERS for season 3 and contains non-canon character death.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Daisy awoke with a start. Something was wrong. She couldn't catch her breath. It was as though a great weight was pressing itself upon her chest. She tried to turn on the bedside lamp but realized with horror that she couldn't move her arms. She tried her legs. Nothing.

_Oh God, what's wrong with me? I'm going to suffocate. What if I'm already dead?" _These panicked thoughts kept swirling around the girl's head. Then a more horrifying realization struck her. _Someone is watching me._

As she felt herself approaching unconsciousness - whether from lack of oxygen or sheer terror she didn't know - the pressure on her chest suddenly abated, and she took in a loud, gasping breath, filling her lungs to their maximum capacity. With relief she found that she had regained the use of her arms and legs, and turned on the lamp with a shaking, clammy hand. The room was empty, save for Eliza, the other kitchen maid who slumbered peacefully in her corner of the room.

_It was only a dream_. Daisy repeated this mantra inside her head several times to slow her heart, and as she switched off the light and settled back down under the covers, sleep overcame her once again.

Her sleep was fitful and she woke an hour later to the same eerie feeling of being watched. Daisy had never felt such an overwhelming sensation before. She wanted to throw up and she wanted to cry as she peered over the top of her comforter into the darkest corner of the room. There was nothing there except for an empty chair, but that didn't make her feel the slightest bit better.

Slowly and quietly, with her eyes fixed on the chair, she pushed the blankets to the end of the bed and shivered as her feet touched the cold hardwood floor.

#########

Anna, who had been dreaming about finding her dear husband in her Christmas stocking, was rudely awoken when her mattress dipped. She opened her eyes to see Daisy in her white nightgown, teddy bear clutched in one arm, climbing under the comforter with her.

"Mmpphh...Daisy, what're you doin?" She mumbled, shifting over slightly to make room.

"I got scared. Can't I sleep with you?"

"Hmm...what scared you?" Anna mumbled again, not opening her eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it." Daisy buried her face between Anna's shoulder and the pillow, and Anna knew not to press the issue.

As they slept, the snow howled against the window.

End prologue


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter one

"I don't even remember her getting in the bed, but when I woke up, there she was, curled up in a ball against me." Anna took a sip of her tea and continued. "When I next woke up it was after four, so she was gone." She looked up as Daisy walked in and picked a tray up from the table. "Are you feeling better, Daisy?"

Daisy scanned the room and saw five pairs of eyes looking back at her. She impulsively nodded her head and faked a smile. "I am, thank you. I had a bad dream, is all." She couldn't hide the nervous swallow that followed her words.

Satisfied with her answer, at least for the time being, Anna smiled back and took one last bite of toast before standing up and straightening her apron. "Well, best get a move on, then. Lady Mary will be ringing any minute now."

Thomas leaned back in his chair and pulled the cigarette from his mouth. "I hear this winter storm's showin' no sign of lettin' up. We've already had a foot; should only take a few feet more to bury us alive in this dungeon." He puffed a cloud of smoke and a tiny sneer appeared on his face as Daisy's hands trembled and the tray fell to the floor with a clatter. She picked it up and scurried from the room as fast as possible.

_WHAP!_

The oven mitt slapped against the back of Thomas' head and he whirled around in his seat, only to come face to bosom with Mrs. Patmore.

"Don't you be scarin' my Daisy! If you think you can scare that poor girl and get away with it you've got another thing coming!" She turned on her heel and thudded back into the kitchen, leaving Thomas with a befuddled expression on his face. He shrugged and stamped out his cigarette.

##############

It had been two weeks, and Daisy had nearly forgotten about the strange events in her bedroom that night. Her sleep had been uninterrupted and she was getting a full six hours. Until tonight.

It was 1:00 AM on the dot when a frigid gust of wind hit her in the face. The window that Eliza, her roommate, had been sure to close and lock before turning in was wide open. _Must not have been locked securely_, she told herself as she slipped out of bed and closed it, firmly turning the locking knob.

It was 2:00 AM on the dot when a frigid gust of wind hit her in the face. Daisy sat up in bed and a chill ran through her when she saw that not only was the window open again, but the door as well, and it wasn't simply Eliza sneaking out of the room for a glass of water, as she was swaddled comfortably in her bed, snoring.

Five minutes later she was, once again, huddled up against Anna, wanting desperately for someone to hold her and say it would all be alright.

End chapter one


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

**WARNING: SPOILERS AND NON-CANON CHARACTER DEATH**

Thirteen months later

Lady Sybil had been dead for four months, yet Downton still felt empty. It was as though the house itself was in a perpetual state of mourning; shadows cast themselves where once sunlight had streamed in and the walls and floors seemed to groan whenever a room was walked through.

Even Miss O'Brien had noticed an ache in her joints and realized, with mild horror, that the ordeal had aged her.

She trudged up the stairs, several of Her Ladyship's dresses tucked over her arm, and stopped on the third floor landing to catch her breath. Daisy, arms full of buckets and on her way downstairs after lighting the fires, greeted her cheerfully. O'Brien replied with a grunt. _Why's that fool girl so cheerful all the time?_ She thought miserably as she resumed her climb up to the attic. She hadn't yet reached the fourth floor landing when she bumped into Lady Sybil.

"O'Brien, would you be a darling and hem this dress for me? I need it for tomorrow and I can't find Anna." She smiled sweetly and handed a gorgeous rose-colored dress to the maid.

"Yes, of course M'Lady, but..." O'Brien's words caught in her throat and she froze when she remembered that Lady Sybil currently resided six feet below a marble tombstone. She moved backwards to go downstairs, but she was fixated on the dead girl's deep brown eyes, and her foot missed the step, sending her tumbling. She came to a stop on the third floor landing, the bones in her neck making an audible crack.

Daisy, who had witnessed the fall from a floor below, dropped her buckets and screamed. And screamed and screamed.

###########

"Poor thing hasn't shed a tear. She's in too much shock." Anna ran a soothing hand along Daisy's cheek, who sat in Mrs. Patmore's arms, head pillowed against the cook's ample bosom as she rocked her back and forth.

Most everyone else, from Lord Grantham to the lowest hallboy, was in a state of shock as well. Once the body had been removed Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson had retreated to her sitting room and attempted to calm their nerves over tea. Lady Grantham was inconsolable to the point that her doting husband was tempted to ask Dr. Clarkson for a sedative when he returned from assisting the coroner in removing the body.

Bates had never been fond of the woman but was guilty of shedding a few tears in private before joining his wife in trying to comfort Daisy. He knelt down in front of her and took one of her small hands, still dirty from lighting the fires, into his own large ones.

"It might help if you talk about it." He murmured softly. "Or if you cry. I know crying helps me when I'm upset."

Daisy was by no means a stranger to crying; O'Brien herself threw around the word crybaby quite freely where the girl was concerned. It was then that Daisy's eyes welled up and, although she made no sound, she spent the next half hour with damp, salty cheeks.


End file.
